android ant uibuild.xml:198: null returned: 1

Question

I am new to ant and Android uiautomator. When using ant to build my testing program I get:

-dex:
      [dex] input: c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\bin\classes
      [dex] Converting compiled files and external libraries into c:\Eclipse\wor
kspace\Android\bin\classes.dex...
       [dx] no classfiles specified
BUILD FAILED
    C:\Android\sdk\tools\ant\uibuild.xml:198: null returned: 1

This is on the sample test code at: http://developer.android.com/tools/testing/testing_ui.html#sample

The full output from running the 'android create uitest...' and 'ant build' commands follows:

c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android>android create uitest-project -n AllAppsTest -t 7 -
p C:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\
Updated file C:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\build.xml

c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android>ant build
Buildfile: c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\build.xml

-check-env:
[checkenv] Android SDK Tools Revision 23.0.2
[checkenv] Installed at C:\Android\sdk

-build-setup:
[getbuildtools] Using latest Build Tools: 19.1.0
     [echo] Resolving Build Target for AllAppsTest...
[getuitarget] Project Target:   Android 4.2.2
[getuitarget] API level:        17
     [echo] ----------
     [echo] Creating output directories if needed...

-pre-compile:

compile:

-post-compile:

-dex:
      [dex] input: c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\bin\classes
      [dex] Converting compiled files and external libraries into c:\Eclipse\wor
kspace\Android\bin\classes.dex...
       [dx] no classfiles specified

BUILD FAILED
C:\Android\sdk\tools\ant\uibuild.xml:198: null returned: 1

Total time: 0 seconds

My problem is similar to Android ant build project failure which didn't seem to have an answer (or at least one that I could descern from the responses.

I can't post an image (not enough mojo yet) but my test project is set up as:

AllAppsTest
  src 
    com.uia.example.my
      LaunchSettings.java
   JRE System Library[JavaSE-1.6]  (there are number of jar files here but I am not
                                    listing them here)
   Referenced Libraries
      android.jar
      uiautomator.jar
   JUnit 4

I executed the following:

c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android>android create uitest-project -n AllAppsTest -t 7 -
p C:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\
Updated file C:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\build.xml

c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android>ant build
Buildfile: c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\build.xml

Which resulted in the 'ant build' error output at the top of this post.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Eric

Answer 1

Not sure this is kosher answering my own question but...

I believe there is an error in the documentation (or the create step) for executing the build.xml file. The build.xml must be copied to the project directory, in my case AllAppsTest, and the 'ant build' command executed from there.

So the sequence of events to get this to work (in Windows command window):

1. Run the 'android create' command

   c:\Eclipse\workspace\Android>android create uitest-project -n AllAppsTest -t 7 - p C:\Eclipse\workspace\Android\

2. Switch to the AllAppsTest directory

   cd AllAppsTest

3. Copy the build.xml file from the parent directory

   copy ../build.xml
   (which for some reason copies local.properties and project.properties also)

4. Run the 'ant build' command

When I first tried this the build failed as it didn't like the single and double quotes I had that were on comment lines. Not sure why that was but I removed them and the ant build worked OK.